Perceived benefits of parks: the roles of information source exposure and park use

Abstract

Parks provide many benefits to society: environmental, social and economic, and need investment to continue to provide these benefits. An alternative to self-financing and commercial approaches involves building the public’s perception of park benefits as a foundation for consequent investment by government. However, there is little empirical evidence to demonstrate public perceptions of benefits. We utilised a survey in Australia (n = 1,584) to investigate whether respondents’ perceptions of the benefits of parks are determined by information source and park use. The results suggest that users and non-users of parks who are exposed to a variety of information sources and more frequent use have a higher perception of parks’ benefits. Variety of information source was the primary explanation for positive perceptions of park benefits. In order to maximise public benefit-perceptions, communication between information providers needs to be coordinated and consistently implemented. Depending on the societal-benefit profile required, combining communication strategies with park use, including through tourism, would optimise efforts to build and sustain societal-benefit perceptions. We anticipate that this research will assist in developing park agencies’ confidence in implementing benefit-perception strategies, thereby furthering the public’s support for conservation.

Keywords:

• Societal benefits
• personal benefits
• park benefits
• protected areas
• perception
• conservation investment

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support and mentoring provided by Professor Betty Weiler and Professor Sue Moore across the project, and specifically the critical comments in the construction of this manuscript. We also acknowledge the constructive and valuable comments of the editor and reviewer panel.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council in partnership with Parks Victoria, the Department of Parks and Wildlife (Western Australia) and the Office of Environment and Heritage (New South Wales) under Grant LP100200014.

Notes on contributors

W. Glen Croy

Dr Glen Croy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Monash Business School, Monash University. His teaching and research interests are in tourism, international business and higher education. Three themes emerge from Glen’s research. First, demonstrating the socialised ‘truth’ that films dramatically effect tourist demand is exceptional, though there are many varied and subtle tourism influences. Second, arguing that communities need to central to tourism and international business decisions, and their achieved desires should be determinants of success. Finally, investigating student team outcomes in regards the influence of learning approaches and interventions.

Brent D. Moyle

Dr Brent Moyle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith University. He takes an interdisciplinary approach to tourism research, partnering with researchers and communities to maximise outcomes. Brent takes pride in conducting research at the interface between theory and practice, engaging extensively with industry partners to complete research with impact. His passion for sustainable regional development laid the foundations for a number of long-term collaborations with local government and parks agencies.

Char-lee J. Moyle

Dr Char-lee Moyle is an Innovation Metrics Mid-Career Research Fellow in the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship, Queensland University of Technology. Her research is focused on regional economic development and transformation; strategic policy and planning; and the adoption of sustainability. Char-lee has also undertaken numerous commercial research projects, including revitalizing regional tourism infrastructure, labour market analyses, investigating the gap between supply and demand for indigenous tourism and exploring strategic issues in Australian tourism.